Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Ghost town eyesore - News 4 San Antonio

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Ghost town eyesore - Top Stories - woai - WOAI 4 San Antonio

By ANDREW LOFHOLM
News 4 San Antonio
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SOUTH BEXAR COUNTY-At first glance the Tundra Village had some promise. Thirty-plus would be luxury fourplexes. That dream, has turned into, broken windows, graffiti, and doorless houses.
It's only tenants are insects, as nature tries to reclaim what was once hers.
"It's an eyesore. Why they have it there? It ain't doing no good,” says Timmy Fields, the next door neighbor to the failed development.
His step dad first sold the, what he says used to be prime hunting land, about 10 years ago.
"The developer, he's in prison for doing this,” Fields says.
Mauro Padilla went ahead with the project in 2007, without the county approving a master plan, building on flood plains, with no roads, water or sewer line, the county ordered the project to stop.
It costs investors millions. He was sentenced in 2008 for lying to First National Bank to attain construction money. The project still sits as it was left almost 7 years later.
I asked Fields, “What do you see?”
He replied, “Trash. They've all been rained on. All the copper has been taken out, kids in there all the time."
The nearly 28 acres and 35 buildings were appraised at $859,220 by the county.
For Timmy, it's just part of life now.
I asked Fields, "Is it weird living next to a ghost town?”
“No, I sleep real good at night,” he says.
The property is for sale and Public Works tell me 5 or 6 buyers have shown serious interest, but once they learn it's likely a complete tear down, plus adding what Padilla left out, they're out.
Fields doesn't know what's next for the land, but he's got an idea to squeeze what little value is left out of the homes.
"What they could do is bring the volunteer fire department out here and burn down and train on these buildings one at a time.”
The FDIC owns the land. I’m told the asking price is under the appraised value.
Since the county doesn't own the land, there's very little they can do to fix the vandalism.
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